#6 Colored Pencil Contest: Bows

When I first saw the reference, I was so excited to draw the detailed colorful bows. My goal was to make it look as much like the picture as possible. I left the image uncropped until the very end when i cropped a bit on the left side due to time restraints.

 This project was a good learning experience because with each bow, I got faster and better and drawing them. I started drawing while using a wide grid of 4x5. I wanted to stay true to my drawing schools so I strayed away from projecting the image. There ended up being a few minor issues with proportion but it was hard to notice with so much going on in the image.  I also had to get creative with some of the values and colors on the bows because I had a limited number of colored pencils (hopefully santa will bring me a set of Prisma Colors). When I was done with the entire project (after many many hours) I asked for a second opinion of anything I can improve. I was challenged to add a little more value to the shadows and the edges of the bows to make them pop.

Overall, I was very pleased with the end result after hours of work. For the Colored Pencil Magazine's monthly challenge, they awarded it with an honorable mention. 

#5 Turning something organic->mechanic

     At first I couldn't think of many concepts for turning something natural into something mechanical. As I sat down with my sketchbook and really thought about the topic, many ideas started to form. Many of the other people in the class were using animals as references so to be a little bit different, I took inspiration from Ciara's painting of sliced citris fruit and decided to do some sort of fruit. Another reason that I chose fruit was that I wanted to incorporate circuit boards into my peice by drawing circuit board leaves. Inspired by a dish my mother has, I sketched two pears and leaves. 

     After many doing colored pencil drawings, I decided to switch it up and use mostly pencil with a touch of colored pencil.

      I drew the pear sliced down the middle to reveal a mechanical interior. I strayed away from gears because most people in class were using them so I chose plumbing instead. Then I colored the exterior of the pears with their natural color. The most challenging part was creating depth because my reference was pumbing on a flat wall. Here is the result. 

    I drew the stems as wires and added a "plug" where the stem meeted the pears. After moving on to the circuit board leaves, the drawing seemed boring and empty. I was encouraged to add more leaves and pears in the background that were realistic/natural looking. It seemed to improve the composition and add depth to the piece. 

    I ended up liking it a lot more after I added the extra leaves. Making up concepts in my mind without a photo refererence is challenging for me so getting second opinions really help.